Maybe We'll Make It Out Alive
by brookesdavis
Summary: When a simple bust goes wrong, Erin and Jay find themselves held hostage in an old warehouse. Will the detectives use their undeniable teamwork to break out of the situation, or will things prove too difficult for them to overcome?
1. Chapter 1

**Well hello fellow lindstead lovers!**

**I'm actually really excited about this story. Although the premise is kind of a team fic, it will be primarily Erin and Jay, since I just love them so much.**

**I started this a while ago, but I've left it so long because I've been writing as much of it as I can. I'm happy to say that I have the basis of it written, so I should just have to tweak parts here and there - Meaning relatively fast updates! I don't particularly like writing action, so some of this has been quite challenging, so I hope you guys will forgive me if those parts aren't the greatest.**

**I always suck at determining timelines, so I'll just say this fic is situated a few months after the finale, and Erin and Kelly are still together. (For now... Wink wink.)**

**The title of this story is from Kris Allen's amazing tune 'Out Alive.'**

**I hope you enjoy it! **

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They'd performed cases like this one hundreds of times. It was supposed to be an easy bust; break in the door, grab Sanchez and throw his drug-wielding ass into the back of a not-so comfy cop car. It was supposed to be easy.

Erin and Jay took their usual position at the front of the building, manning the main entrance and anticipating any arrivals. It was slowly getting dark and the moon was low, and a light wind whirled around them. Jay listened into his receiver, retaining the information that Voight and Dawson were round the back, armed and ready. Olinsky chimed in that they had inside overhead visuals. Sanchez was on the upper floor back building, and Voight was ready to take him down.

"Lindsay, Halstead. Front's yours. On my count." Erin nodded at Jay upon receiving their Sergeant's orders through her receiver. They hustled towards the door and she remained on Jay's left, like always. The seconds passed fleetingly, and the only sound Erin could hear was the grinding of her own teeth. She knew their job; bust in the front, take down as many as possible and act as a main distraction while Hank and Antonio reached Sanchez. It was supposed to be easy.

On Voight's command, Jay kicked in the fragile lock to the warehouse entrance and the door flew off the hinges, bashing off the ground and unsettling a layer of dust. They knew the front entrance hadn't been used in a while, it was displayed only as a distraction; conveying the building to be nothing but an abandoned old warehouse. That didn't prepare the detectives for the thick air and musty smell.

"Chicago PD," Jay barked, feeling Erin right behind him. "Drop your weapons! hands where I can see them!" Men scattered before them and Lindsay started firing, sending everyone into a fit of frenzy. Jay heard a shot to his left, then to his right.

"Drop your weapons!" A few men dropped their guns, while others just stopped altogether. Hands firm on his gun, Jay charged forward. That was until he felt a hand grasping his shoulder and the barrel of a gun pressed to the middle of his back.

"Drop the gun." He heard a booming voice in his ear, and popped his elbow up after the words. He made contact and the guy stumbled backwards, clutching his nose. Before Jay could turn around the assailant was back in action, throwing a fist to Halstead's ribs, then followed with a few more punches for good measure. The wind was knocked out of him, and the gun out of his hands, and Jay stumbled slightly, before feeling the pressure of the gun into his side.

He was pushed along a dark corridor, the sounds of shouting and shooting becoming quieter with each step he took. The corridor felt endless, but by the time he was pushed to the end, Jay was ready for action again.

The handgun sat on his hip and he whipped it out in one fluid motion, pushing the guy with a hold on him backwards for a moment. Before Jay could even so much sit his finger comfortably on the trigger though, his hand was twisted backwards and the weapon fell to the ground.

He was finally thrown into a small, cubicle of a room at the end of the corridor, the barrel of the gun staring him down. He looked at the guy, then at the gun. He was planning to act again; if it was one on one, he could totally take him.

That's when they brought her in. 'Escorted' by two larger men, Erin was held by either arm. Jay immediately turned his head to her and took in her hardened expression. Her lip was bleeding, and he hoped that's the only injury she was sporting.

He looked for traces of fear in her eyes, but she just looked angry. That, and determined.

Held in the doorway, Lindsay reacted in a heartbeat. Jay watched with almost amazement as she flicked out a foot into the left guy's shin, knocking him down, where she proceeded to snatch the handgun from his grip and bring a knee quickly to his chin, sending him down cold. Instantly, she brought the weapon round and the smack of it against the right's guy's cheek echoed throughout the room. As he stumbled, she brought a knee to his groin. And she was far from gentle.

It all took place in about three seconds. But that was evidently too long. As she whipped her head back, she barely had a breath left, although she really needed one right about then. Jay was on his knees, and the guy standing above him had one hand fisting his hair, holding his head steady and another gripped tightly round a handgun exactly like Erin's.

The gun quivered in her hands slightly, and she hoped he wouldn't notice.

"Wanna see his brains smeared across the wall?" He smirked, pulling taught on Halstead's hair. Erin watched Jay wince slightly, but his eyes were steady. "Drop the gun." His thick, Spanish accent bounced off the thick walls and echoed round Lindsay's head.

"He's bluffing." Jay spoke confidently, directly to his partner. "Take the shot." She brought the gun up slightly, steadying her posture. Both hands were wrapped around the weapon and her finger rested almost inevitably on the trigger. Her tongue shot out to lick her lips as she desperately tried to think what to do.

"Take the shot, Lindsay." Jay repeated, too calmly for her liking. The gun was pressed further into his head, so much so that Erin watched the reddening of flesh.

"You willing to risk it?" The guy's smug tone was seriously starting to piss Erin off. But as she watched his finger dip onto the surface of the trigger, she knew what she had to do. "Drop it, and slide it over."

Her shoulders relaxed and she exhaled slowly, a sense of defeat lacing her previously composed state. She lowered her body and placed the gun in front of her, and as she stood up, kicked it over to the sleazy guy holding a glock pistol to her partner's skull. Her eyes flickered to Jay's, and she wanted to scream at the disappointment in them.

"Good. Now you want this to go smoothly, you're gonna do what I say." He picked up the gun on the floor and pushed Jay away in one slick movement, edging to the centre of the room where he pointed each weapon at each detective.

"Fuentes. Niebla." The two men, now notably named Fuentes and Niebla, stirred and attempted to bring themselves up. Jay wanted to smile; he knew the damage a determined Erin Lindsay could inflict. "Please, men. You have embarrassed me." Before the two could defend themselves, two shots were fired, and both fell lifelessly back to the ground. Erin shook at the sound of the shots.

If Jay wasn't hesitant about taking on the guy with two handguns in his palms before, he certainly was now. There was no way he could get both weapons out of his palms and let him and Lindsay walk out alive at this point.

Almost robotically, two more Spanish men grazed their presence, holding AK-48's and unfortunately for the two detectives, a large rope.

Jay's breathing was heavy as he turned to look at Erin, hoping she had some idea of how they were gonna get out of this.

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**How did you find it? Please leave a quick review telling me what you thought. I really appreciate it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two here we go! Thank you to every single beautiful person out there who reviewed and favourited, I greatly appreciate it!**

**I actually love getting detailed reviews where you guys really take in the story, giving your thoughts on what I've written. So please, don't hesitate to do that!**

** Bubbly88Tay - This is actually really interesting, as I never really considered another side to this scenario other than the one I wrote. In relation to the story, that decision was a must as it put Lindsay and Halstead in the hostage situation. But in my mind, what you said about the reflex was spot on - Even if the guy had died instantly, at the sound of Lindsay's firing he would've hit his own trigger and shot Jay too within a millisecond. One of my biggest aims in writing is to try and get the characters as accurate as possible, so I hope Lindsay not shooting wasn't too OOC? Regardless, we all know Erin is a badass and probably would've taken the shot - I just wanted to try and subtly convey a sense of fear that Jay's life was at risk. Thank you so much for telling me what you thought!**

**Disclaimer: I wish it was, but unfortunately Chicago PD is not mine.**

**Onto the chapter!**

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Both Erin and Jay were shoved harshly into the wall, their bodies frisked for weapons and their kevlar stripped. Unfortunately for Lindsay, she got the larger guy who was clearly taking advantage of the situation.

Her face was pressed sideways against the thick brick walls while she was patted down, huge paws lingering on certain areas of her body. After the groping was made fairly excessive, Erin relinquished a long, overdue, snarky comment.

"You always feel up a cop when you hold her hostage, or am I special?" Erin forced herself not to flinch as he dug hard fingers into her arm and spun her round with her back against the wall as his gun was now raised ready to reprimand her for speaking out. But before she could, the 'leader' at the opposite side of the room grunted something at him, followed by a command in Spanish. Erin was oblivious to the meaning, but a sly smile creeping upon her aggressor's face told her it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Another second passed before Jay, stripped of his vest and full kevlar was pushed into the middle of the room and knocked to the ground with a knee to the chest before he could even take in what was happening.

"Hey!" Erin barked immediately, confused as to why her partner was facing multiple blows to the ribs for her words. Jay fought back quickly, whipped out a foot to knock his guy to the ground while he reached his feet. Again, he was too slow for the fist flying into his face at rapid speed. Erin watched a spitful of blood fly from the corner of his mouth and splatter on the floor next to him.

"Apologise." The lifeless eyes of the man pressing his arms against her body burned into hers. Apologising was the furthest thing from her mind. But as Jay groaned from across the room, again spitting blood from his mouth, even shutting her eyes couldn't block out the sight. She knew her partner; knew how his brain was wired. There's no way he would've wanted her to give these scum any sort of a sorry.

"Go to hell." She said. She felt her lip curl then heard another groan escape her partner's lips. It was more strangled. As the kicks became more frequent, Erin felt her heart beating faster in her chest. She was praying that he didn't have anything broken. She finally looked up at him, watching with disdain as he rolled onto his side. He was holding back a scream of pain, she could see it in his face.

Three more seconds passed. Then four. Along with three more solid blows to Jay's abdomen. "Alright, stop. Stop!" The two men stepped away from Halstead, smug smiles painted across their faces. Erin felt sick. But she had to play this smart. So she gritted her teeth, tensed her jaw and put on her game face. "I apologise." Words meant nothing, not compared to the look she was giving the creep in front of her. But he seemed satisfied enough.

It took a few seconds for Jay to get to his feet, and when he did, Erin didn't dare to look at him. Guilt swallowed her insides. Instead, she looked up to the door, where she momentarily planned how difficult it would be for herself and her partner to take out the three douchebags and make a getaway. Half a second later into her not-so-in-depth-plotting, another large guy was hauling two chairs in. And Erin guessed they weren't all gonna play music chairs.

Rather than watch her partner get more bloodied and bruised, Erin shut her mouth as a hand wrapped around her arm and dragged her to the middle of the dingy room and pushed her into one of the chairs. Jay's was pressed against the back of her's, and he was forced into his soon enough. A coarse rope encircled their hands separately, and the four guys around them all engaged in light Spanish.

Both the detective's ankles were wound round the wooden legs of the chairs and Erin felt fixed in place. While Jay was being strapped into place, she finally took in the room, her mind open for escape routes.

There was nothing. A dusty window was thick and clouded with grime. There was one door in, and it was the only door out. The walls were thick too; firm slabs of concrete where their cries couldn't be heard and there blood could easily be smeared.

The main guy stepped forward, who Erin had mentally nicknamed 'Moustache', deriving from the thick, handle-bar facial hair growing messily on his mess of a face, still holding a gun in either hand. "Try anything funny, and I'll kill you both where you stand."

Jay thought of correcting his word choice, considering he and Erin were held firmly in place sitting down. But he wasn't stupid, and had a blind suspicion that anything he said would have a physical consequence on Erin. So he held his tongue, and did nothing but send daggers with his harsh glare to each of the men who left, and held his stare to the one who stayed to guard the door.

None of this made sense to him. They had anticipated their arrival, and now they were holding them hostage. He reeled the possibilities in his head and drew a blank, completely confused as to why two detectives had been thrust and tied to a dingy old room. Money wasn't an issue; Sanchez was running one hell of a drug cartel with dollars rolling in like a daily avalanche. There was maybe a personal vendetta against the Chicago Police Department, Jay had seen a few of those, but it didn't seem precise enough for that. Jay was still considering possibility after possibility while he felt Erin tugging on her hands thrown behind her back.

A second later, Moustache leaned forward and smacked the side of his gun across Erin's face. It wasn't a full blow, and she didn't cry out in agony. She did moan however, and instantly tasted blood from the inside of her mouth. It was a warning; a reminder that if she made a snarky comment again, she and Jay would get a lot worse.

"Hey!" Erin heard Jay shout, as though it would do any good. With a snarl she spat a mouthful of blood out next to her, and tried to hold back vomit as a sleezy hand gripped her chin and held her focus.

He spoke past Lindsay and to Jay, which if possible, only infuriated her more. "You wanna keep your girlfriend in line, my friend."

It took every single ounce of willpower for Erin to keep her mouth shut, which she somehow managed to do, even as the guy twirled his gun and made his way out the room with a painted smirk.

A few seconds after the scum-bag left, Erin felt the comforting voice of her partner. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." God, she hated that. He'd just been handed bruise after bruise because of her, and dismissed it as nothing. Yet after she had a single slap of metal to the cheek, his voice was thick with concern. He needed to stop being so... Jay-ish.

"Got any bright ideas?" She mumbled through gritted teeth when the guy standing just outside the door turned his back. And as Jay slid his tongue across his back teeth and scanned his mind for any conceivable way to untie the rope that bound them, he hoped to God that this wasn't a puzzle that he and Lindsay couldn't solve.

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**Thank you for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is a LOT shorter than what I normally post, but I have a feeling that the next chapter will be quite long, so it should balance out.**

**Thank you to every beautiful being who read/reviewed/favourited this story, it really means a lot to me!**

**Bubbly88Tay - Okay so this is gonna be a little harder for me to answer. (Mainly because I only usually write romance with some action on the side, whereas this fic is pretty action packed so I'm unintentionally pretty vague with some of the details.) But basically, in my mind the team have approached a large warehouse, with Lindsay and Halstead taking the front entrance as they believe Sanchez (the main guy they're after) will be well concealed in the back. So yes, Voight and the rest of the team are in the same building as Erin and Jay. As far as back up officers are concerned, the way the show conveys it, to me, always shows a lack of uniform back up. So for effect, let's go with the idea that Voight took initiative and he and his team went in alone, but back at the station they've still got officers working on the case. I hope that made some kind of sense... - As I said, I'm kind of stepping out of my comfort zone with something other than direct romance writing, so I hope it's going quite well up to this point, haha!**

**This is extremely short, but you'll still probably find tons of mistakes. I still don't own anything - But i hope you all like this chapter!**

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They waited until the first guy finished his door shift, which was apparently only around forty minutes. Rapid fire Spanish was exchanged, and Jay struggled to follow it.

For the hundredth time, he moved his wrists in their hold and found the rope just as tight as it was when it was initially bound.

"Hey." He yelled, catching the attention of both men in the doorway. He felt Erin sit up in the chair behind him.

"Hey!" He yelled again, pulling both large men into the room with quizzical looks. "You wanna tell us what we're doing here?"

The men did nothing but smile; coy turns of their lips that made a fire burn in the depths of Jay. He looked into playful eyes and bit back a remark. He didn't give them anything, not even a flinch as one pulled out a gun and raised it to him.

"They're just playing with you." He heard Erin hiss behind him. She didn't sound like herself. "They want a reaction." He heard the quivering in her voice too.

"They're just playing with you." He didn't know if Erin was still whispering or if her words have relayed in his head. 'Playing', as if he were an animal and this was a game. As if he were weak and defenceless and waiting for the bullet to pierce his skin.

A look of amusement coating one's face, the guard lifted his gun higher, pressing the cold metal to Jay's temple.

Jay didn't break out of a steely gaze, his face almost mechanically still. The air was thick with tension. Jay could barely hear his own breathing.

"Back the hell up." He said through gritted teeth, watching as their smiles slipped away.

The gun remained pressed to his forehead, while the other guard made his way round to Erin's side. The gun clicked as he raised the barrel to Lindsay's face too.

"What do you say, detective? Shall I shoot your puta first?"

Before Jay could utter a word in response, a piercing sound veiled the room as a shot was fired through the air, slicing through the window as it passed Lindsay and Halstead.

Glass shattered and everyone reacted.

Jay's shoulders hunched, and he could feel Erin's chair move in her startled state. The two guards lept from the scene to either wall of the room, eyes immediately going to the door.

Moustache stood proud, owning the room and everything in it. Jay felt time slow as he was approached by him, and sucked in a breath when he leaned down to eye level.

"Next time," He grunted, pressing the gun into Jay's hollow cheek. "I won't miss."

Jay bit his lip and averted his gaze, not even watching as the three left the room and waited outside.

This wasn't a game. This was a war.


	4. Chapter 4

**Bonjour guys, I'm back! This chapter isn't as long as I intended because I took a portion out at the end - The next chapter will have a nice ol' linstead heart to heart that I'm sure (hoping) you'll love!**

**Bubbly88Tay - Man you sure know how to grill a girl! Totally kidding of course, I crave any feedback I get, haha! Now that I looked back, 'waited' probably wasn't the right word choice. At this point I want it to seem as though they're both just praying for an out, and in the situation they're in, it doesn't seem like that's coming any time soon. I've wrote/seen similar things to this a few times and all the while its seemed as though one character has pushed through and got both them out (which will happen by the end of this story, you'll have to guess which character though;) but I didn't want to take that approach. What I love about Erin is her fight, so I thought about how great it would be for her to be the one to get them out. But what I also love is how Jay is so fiercely protective of his partner, and I like to think that around him she doesn't have to try so hard to put up a wall and pretend everything's fine... So instead of choosing one of them to be the hero just yet, for the time being I've decided to stick them both in the dark, haha. I think that if this was really a plotline in the show, Jay and Erin would definitely formulate a plan, but, I don't know, I think because we've seen a few sides to both ideas, what I wanted to explore with this was maybe a sense of vulnerability together, fear, and maybe even eventually hopelessness... BUT I LOVE A HAPPY ENDING SO LET'S NOT GET TOO DEPRESSED.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, CPD is not mine.**

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They spent another hour there, or at least that's what it felt like. Time melted until neither detectives had any true sense of it. Erin could feel the skin burning beneath the strain of the rope as she again struggled against it. Her skin burned at the wrists while the rest of her shivered; the night drew on and a fierce wind entered through the broken window, lacing her arms and even the skin covered with clothes in goosebumps.

"It's no use." Jay told her with a sigh. There wasn't resignation in his voice though, there was hope. It was the distant kind of hope that told Erin he was working on it. "I'm gonna get us out of here, you know."

"How, Jay?!" She didn't mean to snap at him, but she was getting frustrated. They hadn't been told anything and the only change of scenery was when the guys took different shifts guarding the door. She lowered her voice and attempted to contain any annoyance. The attempt was futile though. "We've got no way of getting out, and we don't even know why the hell we're being held here."

They fell into silence.

Erin took a second to breathe and relaxed her shoulders. The pain of her raw wrists was finally starting to set in, so she loosened them, easing the tension between the skin and rope.

"Where do you think Voight is?" Erin asked softly, her voice quieter this time.

Jay dropped his head back and let his gaze fall lazily to the corner of the room. "I don't know." He heard Erin sigh and he wished he had more answers for her. "Hey, uhm... Does Voight have any enemies?"

Erin exhaled a laugh. "An easier question would be 'Does Voight have any allies?'. Why? Do you think this is about him?"

Halstead's eyes flickered to the door again, just as another Spanish guy approached and knocked guns with the one guarding the door. His eyes narrowed and never left the sight. "I don't know. But it sure as hell isn't about us. They're just holding us, we're not the ones they want."

"Then why are we here? Why aren't we dead?"

He let out his tongue, allowing it to glide smoothly across his lower lip as the newly approaching guard looked briefly inside of the room housing the two detectives. "Leverage." He gulped. His throat stung in the action. "Anything goes wrong, and they want to use us as bait."

Letting out a sigh, Erin straightened her back and crinked her neck from side to side. She hated this; this feeling of powerlessness. She hated sitting there while men with guns paraded around holding the control.

The rope was slicing through skin, but Lindsay refused to give up. Moving every limb in sync, Erin pushed forward, stretching hands and feet to create any kind of wiggling room.

As she moved, the wooden chair legs scraped on the concrete floor, and Erin suddenly felt the sharp gaze of the door guards.

"Erin, stop." Jay hissed, his lips barely moving.

Erin relaxed her body and exhaled a deep sigh of relief when her movements weren't investigated further.

While the ropes felt somewhat loser, no longer completely searing into her skin, Lindsay was struck with the painful realisation that she wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

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Not a single word was exchanged between the two detectives, but both their eyes were following the same sight.

"How's your Spanish?" Fast exchanges in a language neither Jay or Erin could properly understand was being played out before them. Knowing their hostages would be clueless, those talking by the door were far from quiet. It's like they were enjoying it.

Jay bit his lip. He hadn't studied Spanish since high school, an even then he was mediocre. But he stretched his ears and narrowed his eyes and hoped to God something clicked in his brain. The words flew out rapidly and Jay was seconds from giving up. Until he heard it.

"Oh my God." Jay mumbled, feeling his face go numb for a moment.

"What? Did you get any of that?"

"In my uh..." He couldn't focus on anything. His throat was tight and his tied hands clammy and hot. "In my Spanish class the topic we studied was disasters - Natural and Man-made." He flashed back to high school; young and naive, sitting absently at a desk while his teacher recited the language. He flashed back to the innocence, fear and anger combining in his chest at the thought.

"Not that I don't love your anecdotes, Halstead, but what the hell has that got to do with anything?" Erin didn't even try to hide her snark this time. She hated being out of the loop.

Time was ticking, Jay could feel it slipping away. "They said the word for 'bomb', Erin." She'd never heard him more serious before and it chilled her to her very core. A bomb.

She licked her lips before she spoke again. "A bomb? There's no way, are you sure it wasn't-"

"How the hell are we getting out of here? Where's Voight? Erin, what are we gonna do?"

A bomb. In their building, there was a time counting down attached to a set of explosives. She didn't know how big it was, but it was obviously planted to take down the entire warehouse.

She felt Jay tug on the ropes that bound them. Hard. He grunted behind her deeply then sighed when nothing happened.

Everything seemed slow-motion for a second; like they were in a movie and this was where they were supposed to find their answer, their escape. Nothing came though. And when the Spanish men outside the door engaged in low, rumbling laughter, the only thing Jay found was anger.

He grunted in frustration so loud that it was almost a yell.

Erin remained still, her heart beat slowing until she almost damned thought it had stopped. "Still think you're gonna get us out of here?"

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**DUN. DUN. DUNNNNNNNNNNNNN. Hope you all liked it!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry that this update wasn't as quick as my others, but I've had a busy couple of days and didn't have time to edit this chapter. There will still probably be some mistakes, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless!**

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She was thirsty. Actually, that was an understatement. Her throat felt raw and bare and the promise of no water any time soon didn't help psychologically. There was a strain on her wrists and Erin didn't have the energy to tug anymore.

"I thought I'd take a bullet. Didn't you?" She wondered out loud, letting her gaze fall onto a cluster of cobwebs in the corner.

"Huh?"

"Being a cop, I always thought getting shot would be the way I'd go. Not a bomb."

"I'm getting us out of here, Erin." She sighed. She wanted to believe him. She wanted more than anything to see his smirk as they stood outside the building, having escaped successfully. She wanted to see his face right then. "And when I do, you're buying me that dinner."

She heard the smiling in his voice. "What dinner?" Erin asked coyly.

"The bet?" Jay reminded her. She bit her lip and created a silence, urging him to go on. "That case that Justin was involved in. You're not getting out off buying me those truffles, you know."

"Right," She feigned remembering. Truthfully, she never forgot. She never forgot a single thing concerning Jay Halstead. "That bet. But as far as I remember, you technically lost..."

"Was that before or after Voight buried the footage?" The playfulness was gone, dropping them both into an awkward silence. One of them had to mention Voight's name, it was only a matter of time. Especially concerning the night that were both remembering.

It was deathly silent. And Erin could hear Jay's brain working, trying to build up the courage to speak. Finally, he did. "It was real, right?" He asked. It caught her by surprise. "Whatever it was that was between us. It was real?"

"Of course it was real." Anything but real sounded absurd. They were as real as anything.

"Since there's a good chance a bomb is gonna blow us both to pieces any second, can you answer a question for me?" He didn't give her a chance to respond before asking. "Why?"

Erin sighed, shifting in her chair. "It's not like it was out of the blue, Jay. We both knew nothing serious was gonna happen. We both knew it wasn't going further." She rolled her eyes at her own answer. She found it absurd how she could be face to face, eye to eye with him, and tell him things she couldn't tell anyone else. And yet when they're alone in a darkened room, not even facing each other, the truth is so hard to speak.

"You remember when Voight called up Atwater? You remember how surprised you were? Kev's great, don't get me wrong... But you and I both know Burgess deserved that spot. She still does." She could hear him breathing, feel him hanging onto every word. "And do you know why she didn't get it?"

Jay took a wild stab in the dark. "Because Voight doesn't do in-house romance?"

"Because Voight doesn't do in-house romance." Erin clarified, a tinge bitterness to her tone as she spoke. "She's the better cop, Jay. She deserved it." She waited a few moments before speaking again. "That can't be me. I've given up a lot, but this job... This job is everything to me, and I can't let opportunities slip by. I just... I can't."

"I know." God, he was so understanding. She could literally feel him on her side. She could feel him supporting her. "But you know I'd never ask you to do that, right? I'd never make you compromise work."

She sucked in a breath the second she felt the pressure of his fingers entangling in hers. Their hands were tied and it was messy and awkward. But she felt it. And in that moment, it was everything.

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Jay's fingers felt numb after a while. But there was no way in hell he was letting go of his partner's fingers any time soon.

The other guys had left, leaving only one burly Spanish man to watch the door. And Jay felt stupidly hopeful. Like he could somehow save himself and Erin. But the time was ticking and the ropes were hurting and the exhaustion was setting in.

Meanwhile, Erin had gone quiet. Jay knew her, and going quiet wasn't what he needed from her. He needed ready.

"Lindsay." He tugged on her fingers.

"Do you think Voight's dead?" Erin asked bluntly.

Jay gulped. "No."

"You think he's out of the building?" Jay got the impression Erin already knew the answer.

"No."

Both of them knew this was a vendetta scheme. It was about revenge; killing Hank Voight and anyone associated to him. Jay had a pretty good idea that Voight was being held in a room similar to theirs.

The only difference was - Voight was the target. And Jay was almost certain that wherever Voight was in the building, he was accompanied by Sanchez. Halstead thought that if he tried hard enough, he might've heard the cries of pain from Voight, or more like the cuss-ridden death threats in the midst of agony. If this was about revenge, Voight's torture was a given.

Jay kept his theories locked in his head, not wanting to instil any more fear into Erin than what was already there. The sad thing though, was that he was pretty sure she already knew all of this.

None of their captors had bothered to board up the broken window, or scrape up the shattered glass for that matter. The cold wind was relentless too, an icy breeze lacing any exposed skin on Halstead's body in goosebumps.

Jay opened his mouth, willing himself to tell his partner everything was going to be just fine. But as the seconds ticked away in his head, he decided he didn't want one of the last things he told his partner to be a lie.

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**Thank you for reading! Please leave a review and tell me what you thought?**


	6. Chapter 6

**I didn't realise how long it's been since my last update! We're kind of hitting excitement here (or at least I hope so haha) so I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own squat. & As usual, there may be some mistakes.**

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Erin thought of her lasts.

The last smile she gave Voight. The last "I'm proud of you" she gave Nadia. The last kiss she gave Kelly.

She thought of the last time she saw her parents and the last line of coke she did. The last time she snarked at Ruzek and fist-bumped Antonio.

But most importantly, Erin thought of the last time she was afraid. Truly afraid. It was so long ago she could barely remember it. She wasn't that naive rookie anymore, she was a strong detective.

So sitting in that dusty old room with her limbs tied to a wooden chair, Lindsay wasn't afraid of dying. She was afraid of not living.

She was afraid of the missed opportunities. And yes, Jay Halstead fit into that category. In fact, he was the entire category.

Each passing second that the bomb didn't go off, Erin thought more of her life; How it was only starting to get good, and was about to tragically end.

Her mind wandered absently to the night of her reunion, with Jay's hand holding hers in such a tender way that made her realise no one had touched her like that before. She sucked in a breath at the memory.

She thought of the words she uttered later: "It's probably better we just keep it professional, right?" Three more seconds passed, the bomb still ticking away. Erin wanted to laugh at her naive words; being professional wasn't going to save her. Whether she and Jay gave it a go or not, they were both there; both strapped to chairs with their lives ticking away, both their death's imminent. So maybe being tied to a chair was exactly what she needed. Maybe she needed to be held there: needed not to run for once.

"Jay-"

"Shh-" He silenced her confession, his eyes sharp on the doorway.

Three guards approached, nodding at the single man against the doorway before smiles crept upon each of their faces.

Among the three was Moustache, who keenly stepped forward with the largest smile of them all. He gripped the door handle, eyeing both Detectives in the middle of the room.

"Buenas Noches, my friends." Jay felt a chill pass over his body as the door slammed shut, the sound of the lock clicking into place filling the empty silence.

This is it, he thought. He guessed they had five minutes before the explosives went off, just long enough for Sanchez to get his men out, leaving just the Intelligence Unit for the flames to swallow whole.

If they were going to act, Lindsay and Halstead had to act fast.

So they did.

* * *

The minute he heard the lock click into place, Jay moved his entire body, hurdling the chair as he shuffled through the room. His limbs ached with exhaustion, and he knew he was sporting injuries. But he carried on nonetheless. The scraping of the chair legs against concrete brought him to the window, where hours earlier, a shot was fired that shattered the glass into shards on the ground.

Jay sought out a large piece almost immediately. His muscles worked in harmony as the chair, with Halstead still strapped in, fell on its side. He landed on a shard, feeling a slicing in his calf. Removing his mind from the feeling of seeping blood, he grabbed the piece of glass he spotted, working his body round the heap of broken remnants to retrieve it.

Once it was between his fingertips, Jay worked it into the coarse rope. His fingers moved fast and powerfully, and all the while he felt Erin's eyes on him once she turned her chair round to face the sight.

He worked up a sweat. The shard was beginning to slice into the delicate skin on the tips of his fingers. He was cutting blindly, nothing but the sound of the glass gnawing through rope behind his back. But he did it.

All of a sudden, his hands broke free from their capture and the glass fell to the ground with a clatter. He let out a breath and an undoubted smile. Jay looked up at Erin, her face was lit up with hope; the hope of escaping.

Without wasting another millisecond, Jay reached for his lower legs, untying the rope at lighting speed. Relief washed over his body yet again when he removed himself from the wooden chair entirely, stumbling as his legs regained mobility.

Halstead raced to his partner, hoping too much time hadn't already been wasted. Despite the trembling in his fingers and the aching in his bones, Jay managed to untie her with ease.

It didn't feel real when she stood up; when they were both alive, staring at each other with nothing but a tiny light of hope inside of them.

"Come on," He breathed, racing for the door with Erin only steps beside him. This time Erin wasn't running from him, she was running with him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Super sorry for the long wait (I hadn't actually realised how long it's been, I've been crazy busy at the moment), but this is one of my favourite points of the story and I hope you'll enjoy it too!**

* * *

Erin moved to the side; kicking doors down was always her partner's speciality. It flung from the hinges with ease and the two slid out, Erin feeling a sense of adrenaline flooding through her body.

Halstead's eyes immediately searched the corridor, and found what he was looking for only meters from him. It was pure luck that the gun knocked from his hands hours ago was still there; and as he retrieved the weapon, Erin close behind, he had the actual realisation that maybe it wasn't too late.

Jay turned back to his partner a beat later, not wasting a second before speaking. "You go to the front, find Voight and whoever else is there, then get out, alright?" He spoke fast and concisely.

The light look in her face faded with his words. "Wait, what?" Her eyes were wide looking into his, looking for clarification. "No, Jay, we're doing this together." She looked past him and down the corridor, wondering where the bomb was planted.

"I need you to get them out of here, Erin."

"We're in this together, I'm not leaving you!" Her voice was flung frantically into the air.

"I need to find the bomb and disable it. Please, Erin, find Voight-"

"You think I'm just going to let you run off on this suicide mission? No, we're partners and I'm not leaving-"

"Lindsay!"

"How the hell am I supposed to do this without you?!" In her eyes, he was already dead. He wanted her to walk away while he walked towards the bomb, and that wasn't something she could accept.

"If you don't get Voight out, he's gonna die. Do you understand me? You need to do this, Erin, we're running out of time." She opened her mouth to protest but he thrust the gun into her hand and started talking before she could. "Don't hesitate. You see someone, you shoot. Alright? We don't know what the timer's on so once you're out you need to run. Just run. And if you can't find Voight, get out, okay? He might already be waiting for us."

Erin wanted to laugh with the only pain left in her chest. _'I'm waiting for us'_ she thought, trying to take him in as much as she could. He looked, desperate, frantic almost. And she was terrified.

"Jay-"

"Don't," He stopped her, let go of the gun both of them were holding, and took a few steps back. Like he was going to bolt at any second. "Don't say anything. Just go. We can fix this, Erin."

"Don't be a hero. Just, please... Don't be a hero this time, Jay." There was a time when he was her hero, when he was slaying her dragons left, right and centre. And here she was, watching as he gave her a sad look and began stepping back.

"We've got to do this, Lindsay."

Then she watched him turn on his heels and race down the dusty corridor, his legs flailing as he headed for the roof. She wanted to drop to her knees and throw her head in her hands. 'We can fix this' he'd said. He had fixed her. More than once. And now he was gone.

She backed away slowly, in the opposite direction to where her partner had blindly thrown himself. It took her a few seconds to break out into a run, and when she did, she willed herself not to cry. Her mission was to find Voight, not to rethink every missed opportunity she passed because she figured she still had 'one day'.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 here for you all! I decided to post this tonight since it's CPD-DAY and I'm super excited. This also sort of ties in with (what I hope) will be a lot of worried/protective Erin we'll get in tonight's episode.**

**I apologise in advance for any grammatical errors, and I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

She creeped down the hallways, willing her feet to move at a fast speed. The gun was high but she couldn't stop the trembling in her hands. Her feet trudged through the dust and there was a large sense of unease settling in the pit of her stomach. She counted the seconds in her head, knowing the building could blow to bits at any moment.

She lost count of the doors she passed, opening each one as she did. They all proved empty, and with each room that lay asleep, Erin's unease grew and her hope dwindled. She considered shouting Hank's name, but her throat was hoarse. She still had tears trapped.

Erin picked up her pace, breaking into a run as she slid across the concrete and reached another hallway. Just then, she saw two flash lights.

She heard Jay's voice as though he was whispering in her ear. _Don't hesitate. _She brought the gun up. _You see someone, you shoot. _But she did hesitate. And it was amazingly lucky that she did.

"Chicago PD, drop your weapons!"

She let out a breath and untensed her shoulders, letting them drop and the gun swing loosely from side to side. "I'm police," She told them, stepping forward and reaching for her badge, soon realising it had been stripped from her a while ago. "Detective Erin Lindsay, 12th."

The two shared a glance and nodded, cocking their heads towards the door after looking back to Erin. "This way Detective. Sergeant Voight is waiting outside." She could breathe again, for the time being anyway. Knowing Voight was safely out was huge, so she immediately followed the two out of the building and onto the street, which was illuminated with uniform vehicles.

"Erin!" She whipped her head over to the left, her hair momentarily blocking her vision before the strands fell and Hank fell into her focus. She didn't waste a second before her legs sprung to action. Rushing over, she barely reached Hank before he grabbed her and pulled her into his large arms. Suddenly, she was sixteen again, in the arms of the man who saved her.

"He's still in there, Hank. He's still-"

"You alright kid?" He was looking her up and down, hands still holding on his shoulders as he inspected her safety. His fingers dropped to her cheek and she guessed it was red from the gun smack earlier.

"Halstead's in there!" She practically screamed. "He's in there, Hank, and there's a bomb."

"Halstead's in there?"

It all became real then. The sirens grew louder and the lights brighter. She felt Ruzek and Dawson touching her shoulders. She saw their lips move but she didn't retain anything. She watched Voight as he went over to - and explained the situation.

"They intercepted Sanchez's calls back at the station. They worked out it was planned." She tuned back in and turned around to Dawson. "They found out about the bomb twenty minutes ago. Bomb squad's on their way."

_On their way._ The words scrambled in her brain and echoed through her body. On their way wasn't enough. She needed now. Jay needed now. This wasn't enough.

The wind was cold on her arms but Erin blocked it out as she stood watching the building. It was tall and unmoving, and Erin could see it falling right there in front of her eyes. She could see Jay falling. She could see it all crumbling.

"Detectives," Erin was shaken from her reverie by a police officer pressing her arm. "We're gonna have to ask you to move back while the bomb squad move in," She sucked in a breath and watched the building door as the team filed in, thick in equipment and ready.

"No, no, you don't understand-" Erin started, pushing against the barrier that was being put up in front of her by another officer. "That's my partner in there. He's in there and there's a bomb that could go off any minute-"

Arms wound round her body and she felt herself being pulled. "That's my partner in there!"

"Lindsay, come on, they'll get him." It was Adam's voice in her ear, attempting to soothe. Antonio pulled her back too, until they met Atwater and rejoined with Voight.

"Come here, kid." Hank's voice was hushed in her ear as he pulled her into his arms. "You and I both know he's damn good at what he does. He's getting out of there."

She was sixteen again, in the arms of Hank Voight, praying to God this was going to end the way it should.


End file.
